SOMETIMES, you see a player for the first time and you just know he is going to be special.

You see he has got something about him and not necessarily because he has played brilliantly. It is more a presence thing.

Such players have that rare understanding of the game and go about things in a special way. They just look comfortable in the football environment. They look like they were born to be there.

For me, in my under-17 year at the 1992 Teal Cup carnival - now the Australian under-18 championships - it was Mark Ricciuto. I had never heard of him before, but I immediately knew he would be a quality player.

He had a real competitive grunt about him - football spunk. And he lived right up to expectations through a wonderful career with Adelaide that covered 312 matches.

I have had two more of these almost freakish first-time experiences over the past 15 months with players who will be superstars of the AFL over the next decade.

Carlton's Matthew Kreuzer and the Brisbane Lions' Matthew Leuenberger will be opponents many times over the next 10 years; they will be what the Eagles' Dean Cox has been over the past three - magnificent football weapons; extra players, almost, because they fill a dual role - as tap ruckmen and running midfielders.

If you could manufacture an AFL player, you would just about model your product on Cox. At 204 centimetres and 104 kilograms, he is the supreme football specimen. He is an awesome tap ruckman, who can work just as effectively at ground level around the stoppages.

He can take a contested mark - at either end of the ground - pushing back to help out in defence or pushing forward to take a big grab and kick the winning goal. He can chase, pile on the pressure and tackle an opponent of any size.

He can push to the open side of the ground and receive the ball coming out of defence.

He can run and carry down the wing, bouncing it three and four times before spotting up a leading forward. And he is a fierce competitor.

He sounds like Superman doesn't he? In a football sense, he is.

If I were writing this column 10 years from now, I suspect I'd be saying the same thing about Kreuzer and Leuenberger.

We often complain about the absence of pure one-on-one battles in modern football - battles such as those between Wayne Carey and Glen Jakovich at their peak. They were always sensational.

I suspect the Kreuzer-Leuenberger duels will be just as good. The ruck is one area of the game where, irrespective of football trends, there will always be a strong one-on-one element.

Both are at similar stages of their careers. Kreuzer, Carlton's No. 1 draft choice of 2007, has played five AFL games. He is 200 centimetres and 94 kilograms. And he turned 19 on Tuesday. Leuenberger, the Lions' bargain pick-up at No. 4 in the 2006 draft, has played 16 AFL games. He is 203 centimetres and 92 kilograms. And he will turn 20 next month. Like Ricciuto, both have that X-factor.

My first real look at Leuenberger was in a Lions' intraclub practice match at Coorparoo in Brisbane in January last year. As much as it is something you don't want to do, because you know it is unfair, I couldn't help thinking: "He moves like Dean Cox."

He had obvious athletic ability but more importantly, when surrounded by AFL talent, he made good decisions and looked comfortable in the environment. Like he had been there for 10 years.

I remembered as much when I saw this same young talent single-handedly take on Port Adelaide's powerhouse ruck pair of Brendon Lade and Dean Brogan in round four after teammate Jamie Charman had been a late withdrawal. It was a superlative effort and pivotal to the Lions' astonishing final-quarter comeback.

I first spotted Kreuzer playing for Victoria against South Australia at last year's under-18 championships at Casey Fields. He had that great ability to compete; to get down at ground level and mix it with the midfielders. Dare I say it . . . just like Cox.

I watched him closely in his AFL debut this year against Essendon in round three, and he got the Blues back in the game. He made a brilliant smother to create one goal, tapped the ball to himself to help set up another and, when he went forward, he gathered the ball over the back of the pack for another. As an 18-year-old first-gamer, he turned the game, and it wasn't his fault that his side lost.

Carlton and the Lions will build their teams for the next decade around these two. Not only are they wonderful athletes and wonderful footballers, but they are also outstanding competitors and outstanding young men.

It will be exciting to watch their development and see how they grow and how quickly they learn new tricks of the trade..